the family you were born into, or the one you chose to make for yourself
There’s things I’ve done I can’t erase
Every night we fall from grace
It’s hard, with the world in your face
Try to hold on, try to hold on. . .
~ Bon Jovi, ‘Keep the Faith’
I believe in the Holy Trinity, and I believe in the Blessed Virgin.
I believe in God, and I believe in science. Continue reading
Dont fall down now
You will never get up
Dont fall down now. . .
~ Everclear, ‘Strawberry
‘
My problem is I always get up. That may cause some cognitive dissonance on the part of the reader. I mean, arent we supposed to keep getting up, to keep fighting, in my own words, to keep advocating until we are. . . . Continue reading
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From where I was seated, it seemed that no one cried at my father’s funeral. It seemed to me that it was stoicism all the way. Most of them were pretty good at it. My 12-year-old nephew was looking a bit shaky for a while, parents wondering whether he would ‘make it’ to be part of the party to walk the casket it out. And I can tell you that I was definitely shaky. I was all but crying, but everyone was so stone-faced that I was determined that I wouldn’t ‘fall apart’. Continue reading
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It’s one of those things on which, probably, each of us has a different viewpoint. What’s the worst thing someone could do to me? And then, is it really the ‘worst‘? Or is something else ‘worse‘?
I’ve been thinking, trying to find myself some closure from something that happened in my past. The closure hadn’t come naturally and I’ve realised that perhaps it was because of this. I was hung up by what the ‘worst thing‘ was.
Without wanting to trigger anyone into places they don’t want to go, let me just say that in general we, as a society, have ideas about what is the ‘worst’ harm that could happen to a person. I want to suggest that we don’t always get that right. Continue reading
There’s a moment in our lives, for all of us, when we realise that our parents have grown old, and after a lifetime of looking to them, now they are looking to us. A lifetime of you being their ‘child’, now in some ways, that is reversed. The only way you avoid this is if you completely cut off all contact with them some time before. Otherwise it’s a stage of our lives that is impossible to ignore. It is a time that can have enormous effect on both our mental health and theirs. Everything has changed. Now you realise that you’re finally ‘grown up’. Continue reading
I have two drafts posts here on Canvas [okay, I actually have more than two but those two are… particularly difficult]. I’ve been meaning to finish them for a while. I started one back in May and the other one a bit more than a month ago. I tried again just now. Read the first one, couldn’t bring myself to write anything. Closed that tab, went to the other, felt myself being triggered again. Closed that tab too.
Sigh…
So, I’m going to write about something that has been bothering me for a while instead. Continue reading
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Today, 10 October 2013, is designated World Mental Health Day by the World Health Organization (WHO). They have picked for the theme this year “Mental health and older adults”. This is an excellent topic, one I hope to read many posts addressing. It is also one I cannot address on a personal level, at least not in the way I think it is intended.
Thing is, I don’t really write posts unless I can write them with some amount of personal involvement. I could, but this isn’t like churning out a middle school essay. For me it’s much too intimate and important. So perhaps this one I can flip around a little, as the WHO has so kindly given me phrasing which is easily manipulated for my purposes. “Mental health and older adults”. . . Continue reading
A Canvas Of The Minds 